Tag: Hawk

Decided to watch another one of the Observer’s Worst Match of the Year winners and so I’m checking out WCW Uncensored ’96 tonight. Maybe it’ll be one of those shows where the main event sucks ass but the undercard is pretty boss, which was often the case with Hogan Era WCW. Let’s find out!

I’ve decided to take a look back at Badd Blood: In Your House. This is the PPV that gave us the first ever Hell in a Cell match as well as the debut of Kane. It was also, unfortunately, overshadowed by the unexpected death of Brian Pillman, which was discovered several hours before the show took place.

I watched this live on PPV back in the day, but outside of the three things I’ve mentioned I have no memory of anything that took place on this show. So let’s check it out and see what sort of hidden classics I’ve forgotten about since 1997.

The story goes that back in 1987 Vince McMahon put together the Survivor Series to fuck with Jim Crockett Promotion’s PPV buyrates for Starrcade. The event was scheduled on the same day as the previously announced Starrcade and Vince talked a number of cable providers to carry Survivor Series alone by threatening to withhold WrestleMania IV from them if they aired both events.

Crockett decides that turnabout is fair play and schedules an NWA supercard to run against WrestleMania IV and goes that extra mile by putting it on free TV instead of PPV. This is that supercard.

Welcome everyone to Monday Night Raw! We’re coming to you tonight live from the Manhattan Center in New York City! Vince is ecstatic to back in the building where it all started back on January 11, 1993. Jerry Lawler is with him to remind us that he called out ECW last week and apparently they’ve accepted his challenge and are here in the building, but who cares about that when we’ve got hillbillies taking on cowboys!

We get a cold open of Jerry Lawler going into Sable’s dressing room. He wants to know what kind of bikini she’s going to wear for the bikini contest. She tells him that a picture is worth a thousand words or something and offers to show him.

Sable goes behind one of those dressing screens and strips off her top and tosses it out to Lawler and then invites him behind the screen for a peak. Jerry Lawler basically has an aneurysm.

We then get a hype video for the show talking about the shit going on with Taker and Austin and wondering if they can coexist tonight when they face Kane and Mankind for the tag team titles. It’s not one of the better hype videos WWE has done, but for an In Your House PPV I guess it suffices.

Fireworks explode and JR and Lawler welcome us to Monday Night Raw. Shawn Michaels is not with them this week, at least not yet. JR gives us a rundown of some of the matches scheduled for tonight and says that before any of that can get underway WWF owner, Mr. McMahon has some shit to say about what happened last week.

We start with highlights from Stone Cold regaining the WWF Championship from Kane last week before the show’s opening plays. We go then to the arena where Jim Ross welcomes us to Raw as pyro explodes and fans go apeshit. Right out of the gate Ross is yelling about Austin being in the building tonight.

We kick things off with some photos from the First Blood match between Steve Austin and Kane from last night’s King of the Ring with JR’s commentary left in place. We see a bunch of Attitude Era run-ins that lead to Undertaker coming down and waffling Austin with a chair while the ref is down allowing Kane to pick up the win.

We get the classic guys fighting in a warehouse as shit explodes and generic hardcore plays opening and then Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler welcome us to Raw as fireworks explode and the cameras pan around the hyped as fuck crowd of 20,000 plus.

Oh fuck it’s the Bruise Brothers! They’re attacking their opponents before they even have a chance to get in the ring! That is not particularly sporting of them!

Match 1: The Bruise Brothers vs. Stormin’ Mike Norman & ????

This is barely a match. The Bruise Brothers attack before the bell, brawl their way into the ring, hit some power moves, hit a double big boot and make the cover to pick up the win. After the match they continue to pummel their opponents before we get the opening credits.

Winners: The Bruise Brothers

I feel bad for whoever the non-Stormin’ Mike Norman Bruise Brother victim was since he has more or less been forgotten to time. Joey never mentions his name (to be fair he doesn’t mention Stormin’ Mike Norman either but Mike had the wherewithal to wear tights with his name on the ass) and all the records of this match on the internet either incorrectly claim that the Bruise Brothers fought someone like Mikey Whipwreck or Hack Meyers or just have the second dude listed as ????. So ???? if you’re out there, let me know who you are so we can get you the respect you deserve for taking a hellacious beating from a pair of oversized Nazi fucks. [NR]

ULTIMATE JEOPARDY! Highlights of the event are shown during the cold open. It looks like it was basically War Games with competitors entering one at a time. Looks like the order of the entrants was Taz and Rocco Rock to start followed by Johnny Grunge, Kevin Sullivan, Mr. Hughes, Terry Funk, Shane Douglas, and Hawk.

The highlight reel was pretty good and I liked how they’d edit in one of the earlier Tod Gordon or Matty Indahouse hype videos to announce what each dude’s stipulation for losing was as that competitor came out.

We get the ending of the match that saw Mr. Hughes and Shane Douglas alone in the cage with Terry Funk. Douglas ties a plastic bag over Funk’s head and hitting him with a pile driver to pick up the win. Due to the pre-match stipulation this means that Shane Douglas is now the ECW Heavyweight Champion!